Sony CEO and 39 other executives give up bonuses in ‘unprecedented’ gesture

The decision comes as the maker of PlayStation consoles eyes a profit after four years in the red. But its troubled electronics unit may remain mired in losses despite Hirai’s bid to drag it back to profitability.
(Industry, Sony)

I didn't mean it as an insult. I'm just pointing out that it must be a Japanese thing, since I've never seen an American videogame company do something like this, and yet we have two of the biggest gaming companies - Sony and Nintendo - each doing it within an 18 month time frame.

@ Kreate, as you may have known, when the American economy was collapsing and banks were failing, they were still giving bonuses to the executives. American corporate culture is such that if you show up at work, you deserve a bonus. This does also trickle down to a lot of North American business. In my position as bank manager if I don't produce the numbers, I don't get a bonus. And that is the way it should be from the bottom all the way to the top.

Lol, our business' will just take a bigger bonus and run just before the company collapses. That, or they will send all the jobs to China so their paychecks get bigger, then cry when all the jobless people don't buy their crappy made products.

Sony has had to make a lot of cut backs and a lot of people have lost their jobs because of that. the execs are doing the right thing by not accepting the bonus as it wouldn't really be fair if they did after making so many others are out of work.

Also it shows that they care about the company and sends a good image out to all those working under them.

Mind you, you do have to remember that these guys do get paid well even without the bonus, so I think they will be OK.

"as you may have known, when the American economy was collapsing and banks were failing, they were still giving bonuses to the executives. American corporate culture is such that if you show up at work, you deserve a bonus."

BS!

That mantra of "if you show up for work, you deserve pay" for the most part exist in low pay jobs. Others that work hard, tend to be extremely motivated and driven by passion.

There is a reason why the US is the one country in the world that rapidly seizes market share in whatever industry there is money to be made.

Take a look at the games industry!

The fact that CEO and high ranking officials give up their bonuses, is ridiculous. They shouldn't have received it in the first place! Sony has been on a downward trend for the past 20 years or something.

Apple former CEO, Steve Jobs took $1 salary! All his income was bonuses tied to the company's performance!

"Must be an American" thing then, eh? The rest of the world is greedy?

Point being, look at things with an objective eye. Don't be fooled, these executives didn't deserve a bonus.

If they demand it, I would fire them.

@creeping judas

"@ Kreate, as you may have known, when the American economy was collapsing and banks were failing, they were still giving bonuses to the executives."

That is because these companies have scoundrel executives that keep re-appearing in our corrupt government.

These people magically downvote proposal for the better good, and then retire from the government post. Then almost always get a consulting job or something similar for lots of money. Then sometime later they re-appear in the government again, creating more mishap.

We the American people should really demand these people jailed, and get some people that want changes in.

They seem to be on the right track. Sony has doubled its full-year profit forecasts up from $201 million to $403 million. Seems that their playstation and financial arms are doing the serious business.

@MiloGarret I know someone who was a lobbyist. Needless to say just being around that group is a lavish lifestyle.

"The most recent pay adjustment for Members of Congress was in January 2009. Since then, the compensation for most Senators, Representatives, Delegates, and the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico has been $174,000."

"Members are allowed to deduct, for income tax purposes, living expenses up to $3,000 per annum, while away from their congressional districts or home states."

"Permissible “outside earned income” for Representatives and Senators is limited to 15% of the annual rate of basic pay for level II of the Executive Schedule."

"The Members’ Representational Allowance (MRA) is available to support Representatives in their official and representational duties."

"The MRA is funded in the House “Salaries and Expenses” account in the annual legislative branch appropriations bills. This account has decreased in recent years, from $660.0 million in FY2010, to $573.9 million in FY2012. Additionally, the Statement of Disbursements of the House states that the The 2012 allowances range from $1,270,129 to $1,564,613, with an average of $1,353,205."

"The MRA may be used for official expenses including, for example, staff, travel, mail, office equipment, district office rental, stationery, and other office supplies."

"The SOPOEA is funded within the “Contingent Expenses of the Senate,” account in the annual legislative branch appropriations bills. The list of total office allowances contained in the Senate report on its version of the FY2013 legislative branch appropriations bill (S.Rept. 112-197) shows a range of $2,960,716 to $4,685,632, depending on the state.25 The average allowance is $3,209,103."

Whether or not it is lavish depends wholly of which interests you represent, environmental or HR lobbyists for instance don't usually have the same resources as others. I should know, I've been one.

The official part is the only part. However, they do often earn other incomes by sitting in different boards or the like of other organisations. That has nothing to do with their salary as congressmen though. Bribes and so on of course occur, as well as favours, but not in the extent that the public thinks.

Any idea how often they are in session? 138 to 190 days in a year. I can't believe you would defend congress. 128,000$ to do nothing but secure their future positions on a bank board. Half Goldman Sachs board members are ex politicians.

If your incentive for doing good in your job is the salary, you have a job for all the wrong reasons.

Money is just a bonus to the job. People should find jobs which they actually enjoy doing, not the ones that give them more money.

You try to live a happy life, so you would want a job that actually makes you happy. Having an unenjoyable job to get money is just a waste of life, you're doing what you don't enjoy in hopes of getting something you do.

So the incentive for doing good in your job shouldn't be the salary, it should be the drive from your passion for the work.

Im not saying they all do I just think its a little ignorant to assume that some people have pride and realize that if you lead a company to unprofitably you don't deserve a bonus (regardless of local).

Also many CEO take pay cuts as well some to the tune of 25% which I am sure far outweighs the measly bonus they took and lasts longer than a one time bonus refusal.

i.e.

"McGee’s total compensation for 2011 declined 25 percent to $7.94 million, from $10.6 million in 2010, Hartford, based in the Connecticut city of the same name, said today in a regulatory filing. McGee’s bonus for 2010 was $1.76 million." - Bloomberg website

And he turned down that 1.76 million bonus.

What about the last 3 years SONY was not profitable did they take the bonuses?

It's funny how people argue about Kaz's decision to give up his bonus. This guy is a millionaire so even if he gives up his bonus this year it wouldn't affect his life style by a bit. Secondly, CEO's of giant companies such as Sony are not only offered cash bonuses but incentives such as shares and other sort of asset's from the company. So if the company turns a profit, they'll earn dividends on their shares. Probably he gets double of what he gave this year next year in entitilements and bonuses.

I do often wonder how the execs at some of the struggling companies are making "bonuses" when their company books show the comapany is going down the tubes. Seriously, what kind of world do we live in where we reward leaders of companies for failure?

To be clear, I am talking in general terms in reference to Godmars290's comment.

@creeping judas I have no doubt that almost every executive in the world feels they deserve their bonuses. But if your company or division is failing...I just don't see how anyone should be getting bonuses. Again, not being company specific here... Bonuses should be based on success nothing more, nothing less.

I'm assuming it's more of a "here's extra $ towards other projects" or "you deserve a bonus for putting in time and effort" rather than Bobby Kotick who just brags about what he makes without putting anything back in the company itself.

What sickens me is there's so many conspiracy a-holes instead of actually looking at the picture of "maybe there is people out there who care enough about their employees and/or customers to sacrifice that expensive house to keep people." If I made that kind of money I'd put some of it back in the company to keep it going instead of spending it foolishly. There's a reason Kaz got promoted, and it's not because he's greedy...

@Arai "It means they are atoning for the mistake that is Howard Stringer as well for the mistakes he made and cost the company."

for many that keep the blame game going against stringer. A) he is still @ Sony and is still on the board of directors. and B)

Last year Sony’s seven top executives, including Mr Hirai and Mr Stringer, gave up bonuses and accepted cuts to their base pay to take responsibility for what had been a record net loss the previous year, of Y457bn. Senior executives also relinquished some of their compensation in 2011.

All companies should do this. I remember how we bailed out companies here and people were still getting bonuses even though the company was struggling. It's bullshit and kudos for Sony for doing this. Why should you be rewarded for poor performance?

Its crazy how you are trying to make MS out to be some kind of money hoarding devil when Bill Gates gave up 95% of his wealth to charity which makes that millions and millions more than any of you combined have ever done for the sick and poor.

Anything to try to get a laugh on the web. You couldve just respected Sony for this and left it at that...

Labor/economy difference with China/Korea. I read a while ago that the average salary in China is 248 Euro (give or take 280-300 USD) per month. So yeah they can afford to price their stuff a lot cheaper. Since Sony's products (I assume) is mainly designed in Japan that would explain part of the pricing difference.

Hey Sony this might help: reduce the price of Vita to under 200 US and reduce the price of the 7 year old PS3 to under 150 US where it should have been already. Might make some more money, just saying. Why is this hard to figure out?

@brother_zero "Hey Sony this might help: reduce the price of Vita to under 200 US and reduce the price of the 7 year old PS3 to under 150 US where it should have been already. Might make some more money, just saying. Why is this hard to figure out?"

because that's not where they are freaking bleeding money like a sieve.

the TV industry is where the are loosing the money 9 years worth straight in a freaking row, sony employ's over 160,000+ people world wide, has more company assets than even Microsoft has sales of 78 billion a year but is still bleeding Money! the over head is what is killing them, bleeding more freaking Money is not among some of the answers to fix the issue.

you do not cut the price on Hardware that is in line with the same hardware level as somthing like the Galaxy SIII or iPad III just so as you can take More of a Loss and just to give the freaking Hardware away, when none of the other company's would even never go that low, as a matter of fact you would be paying quite a bit more than freaking $200.00 for a smartphone that had 128 MB of dedicated GPU ram for gaming than what Sony is charging for the PSVita, hell that's what Nintendo was charging for the 3DS and it only has 6 MB of dedicated GPU ram for the 3DS.

AND YET NINTENDO CHARGED $250.00 for a handheld with 128 MB of total system ram and a out dated dual core Arm 11 running each core at under 300 MHz AND single core GPU running @268 MHz with 6 MB of dedicated GPU ram, but Sony is slammed to high heaven charging $250.00 for a Quad Core Cortex A9 running at over 800 MHz, with 512 MB of system Ram and a Quad Core SGX543MP4+ RUNNING @ over 400 MHz, with 128 MB of dedicated GPU ram. but yet, that's all you hear is Sony need's to be price as in line with Nintendo's 3DS..yeah of course Sony needs to take a massive loss because Nintendo's undercut and used way lower spec's but Sony is expected to eat that cost?

Sony is not going to up and freaking give it away when no one else is going to even give you nearly half as much for d@mn near twice the price as what Sony is offering.

that is the truth about the handhelds today vs what's inside the PSVita, the PSVita was not made for just right now it was made for the long haul. if you want the system you may have to wait until Sony can drop the price, when its not going to break the bank doing it.

As much as I would have loved a device like this years ago I wouldnt buy it if it was $50. Not because its not cool; it is. Im not gonna carry that around while I can just carry my ipad which will give me quick gaming experiences on the go and everything else I need all in one little package.

I dont want to play a full blown campaign on the go... Does anyone want to do that now a days?

@Godz Kastro...In answer to your question...YES! People still want to play full blown campaigns on the go. In fact, millions do that on the 3Ds. Sure, you can get your bite-sized gaming with an iPad. However, you won't get your favorite games and characters. There's no Killzone, Mario, Pokemon, or Uncharted, etc. on the iPad. Plus, with the cross gaming on PS3...you can continue games from the console on the go. I understand YOUR lack of need for this particular system. That's cool for you. I also understand that the tablet and smartphone market has cut into the handheld gaming pie. But, there is still room for those that like to game on the go.